Auditor-General shows Sh16bn bills not settled

About 60 ministries and departments did not settle bills amounting to Sh16 billion in the financial year 2009/10, the Auditor-General has said.

The money, part of which was Sh5 billion relating to recurrent expenditure and Sh11 billion to development, was carried forward to 2010/2011, according to a report.

Some of them are Internal Security (Sh953 million), State House (Sh10 million), Foreign Affairs (Sh80 million), Home Affairs (Sh349 million) and Planning, National Development and Vision 2030 (Sh10 million).

Others are Finance (Sh121 million), Defence (Sh197 million), Agriculture (Sh768 million), Local Government (Sh2 billion), Roads (Sh9 billion), Education (Sh319 million) and he Interim Independent Electoral Commission (Sh280 million).

“Had the bills totalling Sh16 billion been settled during the period and expenditure charged to the accounts for 2009/2010, 11 additional ministries and departments would have recorded excess votes either under recurrent and/or development votes,” the Auditor-General’s report said.

The report says 15 ministries could not prove how they spent Sh6.9 billion, with the Public Health ministry having the highest figure not supported by documentation.

During the 2009/2010 financial year, the ministry spent Sh3.6 billion, closely followed by the Roads ministry, which could not prove how it spent Sh889.6 million.

Others are Foreign Affairs (Sh743 million), Internal Security (Sh662 million), Special Programmes (Sh408 million) and Lands (Sh196 million).

The report also lists Information and Communication (Sh59 million), Industrialisation (Sh90 million), Office of the Prime Minister (Sh59 million), Agriculture (Sh92 million), Finance (Sh10.5 million), Public Works (Sh28.7 million), Home Affairs (Sh3.7 million) and East African Community (Sh2 million).

The report released on Wednesday says the Public Health ministry issued Sh2.1 billion to the Kenya Medical Supplies Agency to buy specialised materials and drugs, but the transaction had no supporting documentation.

Public Health ministry officers had not accounted for Sh480.3 million taken as imprest by the end of the 2009/2010.

The report also shows that some ministries and departments have been issuing advances to officers who have not accounted for previous imprests.

“Apart from failure to have the outstanding imprests surrendered or otherwise accounted for on or before June 30, 2010, it was noted that some ministries and departments had issued additional imprests to officers who had not accounted for balances previously issued,” the report says.

The amount unaccounted for by Public Health officials is nearly seven times that unaccounted for by the closest culprit — Ministry of Education.

The Auditor-General’s report shows that by June 30, 2010, Education officials had outstanding imprests of Sh76.7 million.

The Ministry of Internal Security and Provincial Administration completes the list of the top three ministries that had not accounted for their advances with a bill of Sh63.97 million.